
Will stimulus funds end lawsuits over cleaning L.A. River?
Great news from last week. The Obama administration awarded $10 million in stimulus funds to prevent trash from getting in to the Los Angeles River and San Pedro Bay. The shocking pictures of Long Beach after a rain often show a few feet of trash piled along the shore. The L.A. River is so polluted that it ranks on California’s list of impaired waters. The Regional Water Board even approved river specific water quality standards that require zero trash getting in the river by 2014. The so-called Total Maximum Daily Load limit is one of the most far reaching environmental regulations in the country.
With the $10 million, the Los Angeles Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Authority (I don’t make up these names) will design and install trash-capture devices to comply with these regulations in the cities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Long Beach, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Signal Hill, South Gate and Vernon.
As required under the trash regulation, the full capture devices are designed to prevent 100% of the trash greater than five millimeters in diameter from reaching the L.A.River after a three-quarter inch storm. The L.A. Gateway Authority claimed that the stimulus funds will prevent garbage from trashing the river and the bay, and the funds will create over 100 jobs over the next two years. All great stuff. Congratulations.
So why don’t I feel all warm and happy inside?
Continue reading →
Filed under: Marine Debris, Urban Runoff, Water Quality | Tagged: EPA, L.A. River, Marine Debris, stimulus funds, TMDL, Trash | Leave a comment »